Varieties of Welfare Capitalism
In: Socio-economic review, Band 1, Heft 1, S. 27-61
ISSN: 1475-1461
Despite the considerable influence of Esping-Andersen's categorization of three "worlds" of welfare capitalism, researchers have largely neglected investigation of his dimensions of welfare state policy & politics. Building on & extending the foundations provided by Esping-Andersen, we explore the identities & consequences of welfare state regime dimensions. Our principal components analyses identify two such dimensions. The first, which we label "progressive liberalism," rearranges Esping-Andersen's separate "social democratic" & "liberal" dimensions into two poles of a single dimension. Its positive pole is characterized by extensive, universal, & homogeneous benefits; active labor market policy; government employment; & gender-egalitarian family policies. The second, which we label "traditional conservatism," is similar to but broader than Esping-Andersen's conservative dimension. It features not only occupational & status-based differentiations of social insurance programs & specialized income security programs for civil servants, but also generous & long-lasting unemployment benefits, reliance on employer-heavy social insurance tax burdens, & extensions of union collective bargaining coverage. Pooled cross-section time-series regressions covering 18 countries over the 1980s & 1990s suggest that progressive liberalism is associated with income redistribution & greater gender equality in the labor market. The principal consequence of traditional conservatism appears to be weakened employment performance. 9 Tables, 1 Appendix, 60 References. Adapted from the source document.